The protesters, many of whom were in wheelchairs, were handcuffed inside the rotunda of the U.S. Congress' Cannon House Office Building in Washington DC. Wyle and members of the activist group ADAPT are trying to prevent any cuts to Medicaid spending which they say would force people with disabilities and the elderly out of their own homes and into care facilities to get the services they need.

Wyle's arrest comes just a month after fellow ER actor George Clooney was arrested along with other demonstrators outside the Sudanese Embassy in Washington in a protest held to draw attention to a humanitarian crisis occurring in a volatile region near the country's border with South Sudan.